Montana man indicted on federal hate crime, firearm charges

BILLINGS (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Montana man on hate crime and firearm charges after he was accused of threatening a person with violent, homophobic slurs and firing a gun into the person's house, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

The indictment alleges that on March 22, 2020, John Russell Howald of Basin attempted to kill a person in Basin because of their perceived sexual orientation when he shot a firearm through the person's house and said he wanted to "get rid of the lesbians (and) gays...